Tuesday, December 03, 2013

MOOC Platforms : a primer - biggies, newbies & freebooters

As the
MOOCosphere expanded, more and more platforms sprung into action. Some have
already delivered large numbers of MOOCs, such as the open source platform EdX
and the Coursera. The other big ticket platform is Udacity which has now morphed
into a specific market – corporate training. Although the wellspring was in the
US, the UK, Europe, India, Russia, Brazil and many others have joined the
party. The global LMS/VLE vendors (Blackboard, Desire2learn, SAP) and Moodle have
jumped on the bandwagon. Some so-called MOOC platforms aren’t really platforms
at all – they’re aggregators. Using the word ‘platform’ to mean ‘place or URL’
on the web. There’s also the ‘let’s call it a MOOC even though it is not’ mob. Apart
from this last category, it’s all good. We need a pluralistic landscape. The
internet may like ‘ones’ but education likes ‘many’. We also have to get away
from the hopelessly simplistic xMOOC v cMOOC dualism. The MOOC landscape and
taxonomy is way more complicated than this rather historic distinction
suggests.Some so
called MOOC platforms aren’t really platforms at all – they’re aggregators.
Using the word ‘platform’ to mean ‘place’ on the web. There’s also the ‘let’s
just call our stuff a MOOC even though it is not’ brigade.

As my friend
Dick Moore says, be very careful here. The predominant delivery model
that underpins MOOCS is that they are either free or very low cost, and enroll
large volumes of users. This low cost of delivery dictates that the service
costs have to be in the order of cents or pence per learner hour and be capable
or scaling up as well as down, its not a surprise therefore to see that all the
recent MOOC frameworks are cloud hosted, typically constructed
in infrastructure that can 'elastically scale' to meet demand.

New platforms,
such as Futurelearn and Canvas, are typically constructed using
frameworks such as Ruby on Rails, others in Python. EdX in Django
(effectively the Python version of Ruby on Rails). Courseara is also Django, Python
and php/ Musql. Udacity is Google apps, which is effectively a Python stack and
framework. The key thing is that they are all MVC framework development, which
separates the rendering and representation of information from the user's
interaction, logic and persistence. This allows more a flexible and agile
approach and typically supports a continuous stream of
releases and innovation, as it is far less monolithic than c# or JAVA
development.

Why
does this matter? Cloud platforms are intended from the ground up to be
constructed from software components and are able to take advantage of cloud
computing’s ability to ‘elastically scale’ and as a result eliminate the high
capital overhead associated with the ‘stepped’ costs typical of second
generation platforms such as Blackboard and Desire2Learn and SAP, (and
Moodle) who are starting to feeling the competition.

EdX https://www.edx.org

EdX is one
of the big boys in the market and has established a firm position with its
‘open source’ offer, solid funding and global reach. It’s a land grab and EdX
have been out there in the Americas, Europe and Asia. We’re told that they’ve
have marched into China with Peking University and Nanyang Technological University
but others are also in China, notably, Coursera. There’s been lots of noise
about them being the sole French MOOC platform but École Normale Supérieure and HEC
Paris have signed up Coursera.
Note that Google Coursebuilder has also announced that it will fold into EdX in
2014 and it has a strong R&D programme. Even Stanford, the MOOC platform
generator, has now gone for EdX. For me, this is a good, safe bet.

Coursera https://www.coursera.org

With
$85 million of funding, these guys have deep pockets, massive global growth and
a solid management team. Quite simply, they’ve delivered. Deals with US State
Universities and dozens of others around the globe, in Europe, China, Korea,
Russia and Mexico, among others, have given them the ability to get their Signature
Track revenues going – with $1 million earned in XXXX. Their partnership with
the World Bank won’t do them any harm either. Given that EdX was funded by
Harvard and MIT, we shouldn’t be surprised that Coursera have Yale. Solid
for-profit offer but courses are seen as a bit primitive and video heavy. Solid
bet but you’re a hostage to commercial fortune.

Futurelearn https://www.futurelearn.com

A
private company, set up by the UK’s Open University (and a backroom Government
deal) as a bulwark against US domination, has done deals with a large number of
UK universities and is not looking to expand abroad. They have built their own
platform, which is fine, but the OU has tried this before, with less than
stellar results. It doesn’t help, I think, that they have a BBC Radio guy at
the helm. All of this suggests commercial naivety. It will be interesting to
see how commercial they will be, as the OU burned millions trying to get into
the US to no effect and have always struggled when it comes to business. Courses
have been launched but the platform is not as ground-breaking as they claimed.
One to watch.

Udacity https://www.udacity.com

Much has been made of
Udacity’s switch into the corporate market but this may be smarter than many
think, as it’s relatively untouched. However, this is not an assault on
traditional internal onine training, which is already way ahead of Udacity’s
capacity to deliver. The Open Education Alliance is interesting (not a capitalist
plot) and all seems well with Udacity’s online Masters degree
in Computer Science with AT&T at Georgia Tech.

Udemy
offers a large catalogue of largely business and IT oriented courses that vary
from free to $500. You can also create your own courses. They’ve set their
sights on revenues from the start. Like Udacity, they seem to be shooting for
the corporate market. Rapacious.

Iversity https://iversity.org

This Berlin based
start-up offers 25 courses, some in English, others in German. With a rack of
European Universities signed up, they’re getting there and have an eye on the
European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). They have an
interesting Ambassador programme. They’re new and will have to raise money to
survive. Risky as they’re not fully capitalized (as yet).

NovoEd https://novoed.com

Previously Venture
Lab, this platform wants to break down massive numbers into manageable groups
of ten or less, for group peer work. NovoEd takes a collaborative approach to
MOOCs with an emphasis on teamwork and social learning. This, like Coursera and
Udacity, is also out of Stanford and aims to deliver change both within and
outside of the institution. With over 30 free courses, and a focus on
entrepreneurship, it’s interesting, if not a little to business-focused and
esoteric for most.

Canvas https://www.canvas.net

UC Irvine,
who are going it alone in more than just platform choice. They launched a MOOC
in September 2013 on The Walking Dead,
hooking students into the deeper study of maths, physics and public health,
through the hit show. But Canvas is a cloud-based, open source LMS and Canvas Network its MOOC
platform, with over 40 courses on canvas.net, mostly free, with some at
$49-$199. I like Canvas. It’s open source and seems like fun!

Downes and
Siemens ran their first MOOC on Moodle and we have had a Moodle MOOC on
‘Teaching using Moodle’. Moodle.org has always had a vibrant community
around this valuable open source LMS/VLE but this is a structured ‘course’
rightfully qualifying it as a MOOC. Truth be told, Moodle is not really built
for MOOC delivery as it only has one databases and will struggle with over
10,000 users. But it’s a lightweight option, especially if used with other
platforms, such as Mahara. There’s a Moodle4MOOCs group in G+. Opition but has
severe limitations.

Blackboard http://bbbb.blackboard.com/mooc-powered-by-blackboard

There’s 49
courses on what is really Blackboard’s Coursesites, and a few obvious
Blackboard ’marketing’ courses. Blackboard is a LMS/VLE, not a MOOC platform,
nevertheless, if it is used to offer ‘open’ courses, I see no reason for not
calling it a MOOC platform. In that sense, any LMS/VLE, can be used, as long as
the course is ‘open’. Give the 4000 plus institutions that have Blackboard, you
may wish to play and experiment within an environment they already use and
know. Others think that Blackboard will be wiped clean by newer MOOC and MOOC
friendly platforms.

Desire2learn http://www.desire2learn.com/products/open-courses/

Similarly with
Desire2learn, another attempt at rebranding LMS/VLE functionality as a delivery
vehicle for MOOCs with 10 MOOCs in its OpenCourses. They make a big nise about
their Desire2learn Course Binder for the iPad but don’t they all. Again, like
Blackboard, you may want to stay in the family, while you find your way.

SAP https://open.sap.com/courses

SAP has
announced Open.SAP.com for SAP product training. We’ll see more of this – free
training from software companies on how to use their product, and boy do you
need training to use SAP! This is simply rebranding an LMS as a MOOC platform,
which is OK, if you’re a SAP house.

Aggregators

World Wide Ed http://wideworlded.org

Made
in Canada – Open to the world! Formed in May 2013, this organisation has
announced that it will be a platform for Canadian MOOCs. Their first course,
Online Instruction for Open Educators was run in October 2013. Hard to tell if
this is just a recent response to fear of US domination, a loose consortium,
rather than the real deal.

OpenupEd http://www.openuped.eu

This Pan-European initiative,
supported by the European Commission, with 12 current partners in Europe (also
Russia and Israel) and an emphasis on Open Universities. The courses are
designed to be delivered in 11 languages plus Arabic, and it claims to have
delivered 174 MOOCs. Beware, however, as this is not actually a platform, more
an aggregator, as each institution is free to choose their own chosen platform.

Indian consortium

In true Indian
fashion, a rather vague consortium of Infosys, Cognizant, TCS and Nasscom along
with seven Indian IITs (Institutes of Technology) claim to offer MOOCs. Then
again IIT Bombay have already announced a partnership with EdX. One would
expect India to go it alone as they are always reluctant to pay US prices for
the use of platforms.

When is a MOOC
not a MOOC?

Freebooters

There have been odd
occurrences of people saying things are MOOCs, when they are, in fact, just
conferences, workshops, resources or webcasts. Whether any of these are MOOCs
or not depends on how tight a definition you want to hold. Where I do draw the line is with the absurd
MOOC Campus, yes it is a ‘residential campus’ for MOOCs, showing merely that
they have completely missed the point! In the end everyone just has to be
conscious of the four words in the acronym.

Massive depends on what you have as a comparison. Compared to
the average tens to few hundred on a traditional course, that’s not hard to
beat. I’d suggest that a figure above a thousand certainly qualifies. Then
again, on open courses, where the commitment of the learner need be no more
than signing up to have a look, many may just be browsing or tasting the
course, to see what it is or whether its right for them, you will find
considerable drop out. Drop-out is intrinsic to the model, and it is hopelessly
optimistic to compare MOOCs to paid for, undergraduate courses.

Open is in my book, a necessary condition for being a MOOC.
This is the distinguishing feature that separates MOOCs from other online
courses. Unless courses are open for the public to join they should NOT be
described as MOOCs.

Online is also a necessary condition. You can’t call a
residential course a MOOC, nor, do I think you can count compulsory attendance
somewhere, as a necessary part of the MOOC. This goes against it being ‘open’.

Course is an interesting one. The trouble with general open
educational resources being classed as MOOCs, is that it is a slippery slope
towards almost anything online being called a MOOC.

Conclusion

In moving forward we
must all move beyond the simplistic mud-slinging, and group letter writing,
aimed largely at people who are genuinely trying to do good things and grab
this fantastic opportunity to deliver huge amounts of great learning, at very,
very low cost to people who simply want to learn (and may not have access to HE
or the ability to pay).

Good roundup of the major platforms. The only one I might have included is Peer2Peer University (p2pu.org). The platform enables anyone to design and run a course. Technically, the platform is called Lernanta, is OS, & built in Django https://github.com/p2pu/lernanta/wiki.

How do you think alison.com fits into the MOOC landscape. Massive - yes, Open - yes, online- yes, courses - yes. However, it does not try to move a large cohort through in a specific timeframe. I have come to think of this as a necessary characteristic of a MOOC.

Btw:openSAP is not based on a classical LMS. It is a development based on freeware by the Hasso Plattner Institute - where open content has a long tradition. Includes things like gamification and social learning...Current goal is to scale innovation topics which do not need to be product related per se. There are some non tech topics in planning. So a "x" style format was chosen to achieve that goal.

openSAP uses a platform created by openHPI at the Hasso Plattner Institute. openHPI created the platform based on Canvas opensource and modified the system to their needs and supports openSAP to deliver our MOOC’s. Although SAP is an LMS vendor, openSAP is a MOOC provider and not an LMS vendor There are SAP LMS products (eg SuccessFactors Learning) but these are classic LMS, not MOOC platforms. openSAP is solely a provider of MOOC's. openSAP is what we call an “Enterprise MOOC” with the intention of providing courses related to our enterprise – maybe we should consider this to be an additional MOOC category?